Great St Bernard Pass - June
Discussion
Hi All.
I am driving down to Lake Garda in early June for our Honeymoon. On the 7th of June I am planning on going over the Great St Bernard pass into Italy but from what I have seen online it may not be open then.
Does anyone have any first hand experience on if the pass will be open and if not another pass we could use instead, will be driving down from Dijon so somewhere without to much of a detour will be good. Also I am quite happy to miss Switzerland if the pass isn't open to save having to by a Vignette.
Many thanks.
I am driving down to Lake Garda in early June for our Honeymoon. On the 7th of June I am planning on going over the Great St Bernard pass into Italy but from what I have seen online it may not be open then.
Does anyone have any first hand experience on if the pass will be open and if not another pass we could use instead, will be driving down from Dijon so somewhere without to much of a detour will be good. Also I am quite happy to miss Switzerland if the pass isn't open to save having to by a Vignette.
Many thanks.
If the Great St Bernard from Switzerland into Italy is closed at that time, then it is likely that the Little St Bernard (France into Italy) and the other French cols nearby will be shut, too.
Next east in Switzerland, the Simplon is always open in June in my experience.
You don’t need a vignette if you keep off the motorways and you can get to Visp/Brig without travelling on them coming in on the south side of Lac Leman but I’d pay the money myself.
Next east in Switzerland, the Simplon is always open in June in my experience.
You don’t need a vignette if you keep off the motorways and you can get to Visp/Brig without travelling on them coming in on the south side of Lac Leman but I’d pay the money myself.
psi310398 said:
If the Great St Bernard from Switzerland into Italy is closed at that time, then it is likely that the Little St Bernard (France into Italy) and the other French cols nearby will be shut, too.
Next east in Switzerland, the Simplon is always open in June in my experience.
You don’t need a vignette if you keep off the motorways and you can get to Visp/Brig without travelling on them coming in on the south side of Lac Leman but I’d pay the money myself.
Thanks for the response, how does the Simplon compare to the GSB? Next east in Switzerland, the Simplon is always open in June in my experience.
You don’t need a vignette if you keep off the motorways and you can get to Visp/Brig without travelling on them coming in on the south side of Lac Leman but I’d pay the money myself.
Doing a road trip June myself - and plan to go `France/Italy/Switzerland doing the `saint Bernard pass.
Found this useful Pass webpage/so you can check beforehand:
Alpen Passé
Found this useful Pass webpage/so you can check beforehand:
Alpen Passé
Jordan247 said:
What makes you think so? We are cutting straight across Switzerland to get to the alps and won't be returning so £35 or so seems steep.
Totting up the tolls on the additional autoroutes and autostrade there and back by comparison should give a sense of the value, but the value is much greater clearly if you can make full use of the 13 month life of the vignette. seyre1972 said:
Doing a road trip June myself - and plan to go `France/Italy/Switzerland doing the `saint Bernard pass.
Found this useful Pass webpage/so you can check beforehand:
Alpen Passé
That's a great link. You can see from the historical data it's typically been opening last week May to first week June.Found this useful Pass webpage/so you can check beforehand:
Alpen Passé
We went the last week in May, because that coincided with our holidays in the area-ish, and it was closed. BUT only the right side of the road was closed, and we were in a right hand drive car, so it was open for us!
We drove for ages, had the place to ourselves, then at the top we got greeted with 12ft of snow about 100m from the border (Italian side), and the Swiss side was cleared!
Oh well.... on the way back down we passed another car and a minibus who asked us if it was open. We took the tunnel through, and would you believe it, the Swiss side was open to RHD cars too!
If you go onto the page for the pass on the Alpen Passé website, as we approached the hairpin at the top of the picture we passed a motorbike coming back down, only to be faced with a snow collapse blocking most of the road. Whilst I weighed up how I could clear it to get past, common sense kicked in and I backed down the hill instead, leaving a full crossing for another time. 
When the pass is open there's a museum at the top based in the old kennels which I was itching to spring on her majesty as she's a doggy lover.
Jordan247 said:
Thanks for the response, how does the Simplon compare to the GSB?
It has some dramatic stretches especially looking back down into the Rhône valley but is largely Heidi-scenic grazing cattle heading into Italy. It also has more trucks than the GSB (but fewer French camper vans). It has had extensive road works in recent years but these seem to have abated. The Italian side is the rather impressive Toce glacial valley that runs down to Lake Maggiore on SS33 where it turns into an autostrada that runs past Stresa and Arona and feeds onto the Milan to Venice autostrada to go east.
However, if you are keen on pass driving, if you stay on the road out of Brig, the Susten and Grimsel are available to you and you can go through the Gotthard Tunnel (if the pass is shut). The tunnel is covered by the vignette, of course.
Jordan247 said:
What makes you think so? We are cutting straight across Switzerland to get to the alps and won't be returning so £35 or so seems steep.
Look at your routing, if you can avoid the autoroute then you don’t need a vignette. There are no NPR cameras but it is policed, I was caught at about 3am coming in from Italy and was relieved of 200chf plus the cost of a vignette at the roadside. They first asked me how long I’d been in Switzerland (was driving a Dutch registered car) so couldn’t blag it when told why I’d be stopped. ChocolateFrog said:
The Vignette is one of the best value things Switzerland does, well worth it.
If you are living there and that cost covers the year, then yes I would agree. However if you are just traveling through the country in one day to somewhere else, then it is a rip off and ridiculous that you can't purchase other options such as one day, a week etc. You are also required a vignette to travel on the Austrian motorways, but at least there you have the option to purchase a vignette for different periods of time.NSNO said:
If you are living there and that cost covers the year, then yes I would agree. However if you are just traveling through the country in one day to somewhere else, then it is a rip off and ridiculous that you can't purchase other options such as one day, a week etc. You are also required a vignette to travel on the Austrian motorways, but at least there you have the option to purchase a vignette for different periods of time.
The vignette covers the Gotthard tunnel as well. OTH if you rack up two cross-Alp tunnel tolls plus the extra toll mileage in France and Italy, the vignette pays for itself pretty quickly even on one return trip.
NSNO said:
ChocolateFrog said:
The Vignette is one of the best value things Switzerland does, well worth it.
If you are living there and that cost covers the year, then yes I would agree. However if you are just traveling through the country in one day to somewhere else, then it is a rip off and ridiculous that you can't purchase other options such as one day, a week etc. You are also required a vignette to travel on the Austrian motorways, but at least there you have the option to purchase a vignette for different periods of time.AlexIT said:
Yeah, but a weekly vignette in Austria is 10 €, if you travel a one-day distance in Italy or France 35 € will seem an absolute bargain...
It’s the total cost of the round trip that matters. The Mount Blanc tunnel is around €65 return IIRC to add to the extra road tolls. It is the vignette that is the bargain even if annual only. psi310398 said:
AlexIT said:
Yeah, but a weekly vignette in Austria is 10 €, if you travel a one-day distance in Italy or France 35 € will seem an absolute bargain...
It’s the total cost of the round trip that matters. The Mount Blanc tunnel is around €65 return IIRC to add to the extra road tolls. It is the vignette that is the bargain even if annual only. 
OTOH, the Giro d'Italia which had to transit today on the Great St. Bernard Pass, due to heavy snowfalls of the last days and the increased risks of avalanches had been diverted go through the tunnel instead.
Now due to the worsening weather conditions the stage has been shortened to the last 70 kms only, from the exit of the tunnel to Crans-Montana.
I doubt that they will care to open the road in the next couple of weeks, if the weather doesn't really improve.
AlexIT said:
Yeah, that's what I meant to say, but didn't really come out as intended in my post... sorry
OTOH, the Giro d'Italia which had to transit today on the Great St. Bernard Pass, due to heavy snowfalls of the last days and the increased risks of avalanches had been diverted go through the tunnel instead.
Now due to the worsening weather conditions the stage has been shortened to the last 70 kms only, from the exit of the tunnel to Crans-Montana.
I doubt that they will care to open the road in the next couple of weeks, if the weather doesn't really improve.
OTOH, the Giro d'Italia which had to transit today on the Great St. Bernard Pass, due to heavy snowfalls of the last days and the increased risks of avalanches had been diverted go through the tunnel instead.
Now due to the worsening weather conditions the stage has been shortened to the last 70 kms only, from the exit of the tunnel to Crans-Montana.
I doubt that they will care to open the road in the next couple of weeks, if the weather doesn't really improve.
We are in violent agreement!
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